Uganda rights groups set to monitor violence against women during elections

KAMPALA, Feb 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ugandan
women's rights groups are setting up a control centre to monitor
any violence against women in the East African nation's
elections this month and to act quickly on any reports.

The move comes after the United States voiced concern that
the electoral environment in Uganda was deteriorating in the
run-up to the Feb. 18 elections.

Violence during an election cycle is common in many African
countries where it may be triggered by political or ethnic
tensions, or flawed electoral processes, with women and children
the most likely to be affected.

Jessica Nkuuhe, the National Coordinator of the Uganda
Women's Situation Room, said the control centre will be launched
on Feb. 15 at a hotel in Kampala and run until Feb. 20.

Nkuuhe said there had not been reports of electoral
violence targeting women in Uganda before but women did face
more types of psychological violence, whether they are voters or
candidates, and efforts to prevent them from voting.

"Incidences of domestic violence resulting from differences
in the choice of party or candidates have also been reported,"
she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

President Yoweri Museveni has governed Uganda for three
decades since coming to power after waging a five-year guerrilla
war. He is heavily favoured to win another five-year term but
the election is expected to be his toughest yet.

The U.S. State Department last month said there had been
numerous reports of police using "excessive force, obstruction
and dispersal of opposition rallies, and intimidation and arrest
of journalists", adding to "an electoral climate of fear and
intimidation".

Patricia Munaabi Babiiha, the executive director of Forum for
Women in Democracy (FOWODE), said the control room would employ
women and youth and also involve police representatives and
officials from the Electoral Commission.

She said 450 women and youth observers have been trained and
deployed in 15 districts considered as hotspots to observe and
report on the elections from a gender and violence perspective.

Also 10 youth volunteers have been trained to work as call
operators to receive and record incidents from the field for
processing and intervention when necessary.

"We shall have lawyers, communication specialists, data
analysts, who will be able to decipher the information and call
the necessary officials to go and resolve the issues wherever
the incidents are reported," she said.

The Women's Situation Room is a concept that was first
implemented under the Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC)
during elections in Liberia in 2011.

It started amid growing awareness that violence had become a
norm of African elections and women needed to find ways to
counter this.